Dos and Don’ts Underwater and Ashore

Behaviour Underwater

Don’t touch anything under water. Marine creatures are no pets and not used to get touched. You destroy with your hands the thin layer on their skin which is protecting them from parasites.

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Never forget that corals are living animals even if they look like plants or stones.

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Don’t take anything out of the water even if it seems to be dead – it belongs to the sea.

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When scuba diving or snorkeling, do not touch anything and swim in the water in a way so that you do not have to hold on to anything unnecessarily.

Behaviour Ashore

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Don’t buy any gifts like shells, corals, turtle shells, pufferfish, shark jaws, shark teeth, jewellery with shells or other products made out of sea animals.

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Don’t collect shells on the beach and leave them where they belong to. Hermit crabs grow their whole life and have to search now and then for a new home or in other words for a bigger shell.

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Don’t throw any trash on the beach or in the water – the sea is no trash can. For example cigarette filters are extremely toxic and fish swallow it – they won’t survive that!

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Do not use disposable plastic bags and take back home all empty plastic packaging of shower gel, sunscreen, cosmetics, etc. from your holiday for disposal.

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Only eat or buy fish when you know that it had been caught in an appropriate way. By fishing with driftnets a lot of fish get caught but only some will be sold and the rest, called bycatch, will be left dead in the sea. Also reefs get damaged by certain kinds of fishing. So when you’re not sure, better keep away from it.

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Support different organizations who do activities to protect the underwater world – they are dependent on any help. Share your knowledge with others – many people do not suspect at all that they do harm to the environment with their behaviour.